The European Union: ERASMUS in Paris

Book abstract:

This work seeks to determine the extent to which the European Union's educational initiatives can serve both national and supranational agendas in France. It endeavours to answer how institutional differences may or may not affect participation of the ERASMUS programme, as well as how the institutions are changing or not changing as a result. The authors contend that it is reasonable to expect that national patterns of adaptation to the European integration process will differ according to institutional history and culture.

Chapters I & II examine the role of political and economic factors in the context of EU integration and French nationalism. The role of French cultural integration in the context of both European political and educational policies is explored in Chapter III. Universalism and nationalism in the French higher education system are the subject of Chapter IV and both are considered significant factors in both realising and undermining the European integration processes. Chapter V discusses the shaping of the modern French university system and the part played by decentralisation and democracy led by the student revolt in 1968 and the extent to which that subsequently influenced institutional response to European integration policies. Chapter VI explores the transitional state of French higher education; the extent to which market forces are constrained and the influence of public control and accountability in this area. Three specific higher education institutions: Paris 8 Université Vincennes Saint Denis; L'Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po); and La Nouvelle Sorbonne, Paris III are examined in the following three chapters and conclusions reached as to their commitment to and co-operation in the ERASMUS programme. The author concludes in the final chapter with an echo of Jacques Delors, President of the European Commission from 1985 to 1995 that French participation in a constructed idea of Europe via European higher education policies is a way to perpetuate 'a certain idea of France'.

The work will interest scholars students and lecturers in the fields of European Studies, French Politics, Public Policy and Education. Students about to embark on their ERASMUS year might also find it an interesting read.

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